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Research in environmental engineering is driven by the need to develop sustainable society. To accomplish this, research is conducted to improve understanding of the behavior of natural environmental systems and the impact of human activities on them as well as to develop improved engineered systems that minimize such impacts. Research in the Environmental Engineering Group emphasizes the following four areas:
Research in water and wastewater seeks to understand treatment systems so that they can be applied more effectively and economically to protect human health and the environment. Current projects include one that is developing methods for removing arsenic from drinking water and insuring that disposal of residuals produced during treatment do not adversely impact the enviornment. Work is also underway to develop methods for destroying contaminants in drinking water and wastewater using a novel compound related to common rust. Another project is developing new technology to extend the extent of recycle possible in industrial cooling water systems.
Research in environmental management seeks to develop better tools and approaches for protecting environmental quality. One of the key areas of current research is developing better methods for quantitative risk assessment. This process is used to evaluate the potential damage that could be caused to human health or the enviornment by different human activities. As such, it supports environmental decision makers and enables them to devote limited resources to the more important environmental problems. Another important area is in planning responses to environmental crises such as oil or hazardous material spills.
Research in hazardous waste management focuses on developing improved methods for reducing, recycling, and treating waste materials that are toxic, or otherwise hazardous. Research in site remediation focuses on developing improved tools for cleaning environments that have been contaminated by improper release of hazardous materials. Research is being conducted on methods of using microorganisms to bioremediate soils contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons or explosives. Other projects are developing improved methods to better immobilize and destroy contaminants in wastes treated by solidification/stabilization technologies. A key interest is in developing methods for detoxifying chlorinated organics by reductive dechlorination using compounds prepared from ferrous iron.
Research in natural environmental systems focuses on understanding the movement of materials through the natural enviornment, how those materials change and how they impact environmental quality. One area of research is improving our understanding of how particles move through the environment and how they can carry other pollutants with them. Other research efforts in this area include applying geographical information systems (GIS) to better understand how water moves through the environment and how it can carry materials that affect the quality of the environment. Developing computer models and other tools that enable decision-makers to better allocate scarce water resources is another area of current research. Understanding processes in the subsurface that affect contaminants and developing improved models to describe groundwater contaminant transport is another important research interest in natural environmental systems.
CE faculty involved: Dr. Robin Autenrieth, Dr. James Bonner, Dr. M. Yavuz Corapcioglu, Dr. Francisco Olivera and Dr. Ralph Wurbs
